Philanthropists of the Year

Braham—the executive who can move from a boardroom strategy session to singing the national anthem at a Tampa Bay Rays game—has watched several people developed under her leadership go on to run major organizations across the region. Her own civic work includes the Tampa Bay Chamber, St. Petersburg Economic Development Corporation, Copperhead Charities and Florida Insurance Trust, and she became the first Black woman to chair the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce.

Her memoir, An Angel for Detroit, recounts her childhood, while her Voices of Impact program gives other community leaders a platform to tell their stories. Braham holds a biology degree from the University of Missouri and a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Texas at El Paso, where she entered the city’s Black Hall of Fame in 2026.

Before joining the League, Culver served as senior vice president of community partnerships at the Tampa Metropolitan Area YMCA, working across youth development, operations and community engagement after earlier roles at Bank of America, Enterprise Rent-A-Car and The Home Depot. At The Tampa Club, she serves as vice chair of the Philanthropy Committee and helps lead Gathering for Good, an expo-style event that gives newcomers an approachable way into local philanthropy.

Culver also serves the Tampa Bay Chamber as a Leadership Tampa day chair, Military Committee member and former mentor and remains active with Tampa Women for Good and 100+ Women of Westshore. She holds a psychology degree from the University of Alabama and an MBA from Lindenwood University.

McCarey has spent a decade speaking in court for abused and neglected children and training other advocates, and she also leads Voices for Children of Tampa Bay and serves Mary Lee’s House, the county’s pediatric forensic center. Her volunteer work then reaches well beyond the courtroom: she helped build a neonatal animal unit at the Humane Society of Tampa Bay, fosters bottle-fed animals and frees pelicans tangled near the Sunshine Skyway.

She has tagged sharks for research, mentored Girl Scouts and sent care packages to deployed soldiers. McCarey also travels to Arlington National Cemetery to lay wreaths for veterans, including her father, an Army helicopter pilot buried there.

Today, Russick recruits volunteers and manages race-day operations at T-4 KartPlex, where amateurs compete alongside professional drivers. When supporters wanted another way into the cause, his team built Art 4 Kids, transforming the James Museum into a motorsports gallery with track-style fencing, racing art and a helmet painted by driver Sebastien Bourdais with inlays created by hospital patients. The event reached people who could not make a weekday race—or had no interest in climbing into a kart.

Russick also helps with All Kids Wonderland, the hospital’s holiday program for children receiving treatment during the holidays, and his volunteer team includes friends from childhood, Catholic school, sailing and the University of Florida. Away from Kart 4 Kids, Russick is a senior account executive at ServiceNow supporting the nation’s defense industrial base; his wife, Marta, and son, Christian, serve alongside him.

A woman might first arrive for clothing or hygiene products, then connect with a therapist, business mentor or practical class. Chief Operating Officer Alanna Karaosmani—a former banking leader who spent 16 years in the industry—has helped extend that reach through United Way Suncoast, Hope Villages of America, CASA, Habitat for Humanity and NAMI, using referrals when another organization already provides the service and drawing staff members, businesses and volunteers into drives, mentorship and professional support.

Great Explorations takes experiments and a traveling planetarium to schools, libraries and neighborhood centers across Tampa Bay, partners with Ronald McDonald House and Big Brothers Big Sisters and provides free and reduced-price admission. It has also expanded its preschool classrooms, with students completing its voluntary prekindergarten program consistently leaving ready for kindergarten.

Nearly 193,000 children and family members visited or participated during the latest fiscal year, while outreach brought hands-on learning to more than 18,000 children. Staff also prepare meals and support child advocates through local organizations, and Great Explorations is pursuing a Discovery Center that would expand STEAM education across St. Petersburg.

Founder Mary Rose Gullet—a licensed clinical social worker with more than 25 years of horse experience—launched Honey’s in 2018 and built partnerships with hospitals, schools, first responders and survivor organizations across Florida. The miniature horses can ride elevators into hospitals, while visits incorporate mental-health education, coping skills and emotional-regulation tools.

Honey’s has completed more than 3,000 community visits and reached hundreds of thousands of people. Surveys track anxiety, mood and morale, while school programs ask whether students learned a strategy they can still use after the miniature horse has left the building; the model now includes small-group wellness programs in Hillsborough and Pasco schools and trauma-informed sessions for trafficking survivors.

Breaking Bread With Heroes gathers veterans and first responders over meals, Reuniting the Brave reconnects military units scattered by civilian life and Mission VetFit combines physical and mental wellness. The Foundation’s suicide-prevention work trains veterans and military spouses to recognize risk and create safety plans. Irvine still cooks and serves at Breaking Bread With Heroes events, then sits down with the veterans and first responders attending them.

More than one million service members, veterans, first responders and family members have participated nationwide, with Tampa Bay serving as headquarters and a base for reunions, suicide-prevention training and an ambassador program that prepares participants to guide others toward support. Irvine also advises the U.S. Army on its dining facilities.

Nonprofits serving children through safety, education or disability support apply each year to become the Mission Spotlight, with finalists getting three minutes at a Pitch Night where organizations also swap resources and meet potential partners. The selected nonprofit receives a year of advocacy and introductions before appearing at the Signature Candlelight Dinner; past spotlights have served young adults with developmental disabilities, children in foster care and families seeking therapeutic riding.

Previous Mission Spotlight recipients return as guest judges, helping select the next organization.

Brooks Bunch combines mentoring, financial literacy and career exposure, Rites of Passage works with girls in grades three through 12 and crime-prevention programs partner with schools and juvenile courts on tutoring and decision-making. Brooks DeBartolo Collegiate High School reports a 100% graduation rate, while school-supply drives, first-responder events, life-skills classes, workshops and community-police forums helped the foundation serve more than 4,000 young people during its latest reported year.

Its Business Academy also sent graduates to Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., putting history, government and career possibilities in front of students beyond the classroom. Brooks—the Pensacola native whose football career made him famous in Tampa—has kept the foundation active in both communities.

Amanda leads the family foundation, while Michael—the Friedrich Watkins of Tampa contractor who also serves as president of GiGi’s Playhouse Tampa—brings colleagues, vendors and friends into the annual Clay Shoot. The event supports a network that includes GiGi’s Playhouse Tampa, the Down Syndrome Association of Tampa Bay and FRIENDS of Children with Special Needs.

Michael Bucalo also serves the Associated Builders and Contractors Florida Gulf Coast Chapter and is joining the University of Tampa Board of Trustees.

Kilbourne distributes bicycles through onbikes, organizes volunteers for The Phoenix recovery community and supports the Children’s Cancer Center, alongside organizations working in education, hunger relief, animal welfare, the arts and family safety. At one Children’s Cancer Center event, Kilbourne helped mix 1,000 gallons of orange gelatin.

He has also connected onbikes with Frameworks of Tampa Bay, which used bicycles to encourage school attendance before the idea grew into a larger program serving Title I schools. Kilbourne now serves as vice president of The Phoenix, governance chair for onbikes and a Children’s Cancer Center board member.

Pepin Academies helps students with learning differences build confidence and independence, while the foundation supports first-responder mental health and nursing-career pathways. A summer program with the University of South Florida gives high school students nursing experience and mentors, while police and fire partnerships support the foundation’s first-responder programs.

Executive Director Tina Pepin, 29, grew up watching her grandfather and father lead the family’s philanthropic work and now leads its partnerships with organizations including AdventHealth Tampa and USF Health under the foundation’s “serving those who serve” banner.

Other investments include breast care, employee mental-health training and tools that help heart-failure patients recover at home. President Kristen McCall also leads assistance for AdventHealth employees facing emergencies of their own; after the 2024 hurricanes, the program helped more than 150 workers regain stability.

More than 150,000 fans, 2,500 volunteers and hundreds of corporate partners gather around the tournament, while nearly 100 charities connect to its fundraising. Birdies for Tampa Bay Charities lets nonprofits use professional golf to engage their own supporters, and longer partnerships include housing through Habitat for Humanity Tampa Bay Gulfside, youth development through First Tee and veteran support through Tampa General Hospital Foundation’s Home Base program.

President Tracy West—the tournament director who has managed professional golf for more than 30 years—has led the Valspar Championship since 2014 while serving organizations tied to housing, youth, women in sports and regional growth.

Founder Taneka Bowles—the wife of Buccaneers Head Coach Todd Bowles and mother of Tyson, who was diagnosed with autism at age two—started the foundation in 2023 alongside the Tampa Bay Fashion Experience. Her family’s experience also helped inspire a sensory room at Raymond James Stadium for neurodiverse guests who need a calmer place inside the stadium.

Koenig—whose mother died from cancer and uncle from heart disease—has directed company support toward organizations including the American Cancer Society, Moffitt Cancer Center and the American Heart Association, alongside Habitat for Humanity, Junior Achievement and Tampa schools. CITY HOME donates furniture to families leaving homelessness and classrooms that need better spaces, gives employees volunteer opportunities during work hours and uses Community Champions throughout its network to connect stores with local needs.

The company’s environmental work includes solar-powered showrooms, extensive recycling and a carbon-neutrality goal.

Employees choose their projects, colleagues cover responsibilities and companywide service days bring spouses and children along. Individual efforts happen nearly every week, with larger projects supporting Feeding Tampa Bay, A Kid’s Place, Joshua House, onbikes, the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay, Lions World Vision Institute and The Spring of Tampa Bay.

The office also works with St. Joseph’s Hospital and organizations serving children and families with limited access to essential resources. Lockton tracks employee participation, gathers feedback from nonprofit partners on its local projects and shares associate-led work internally so colleagues and clients can join later efforts.

Team members sell cause-themed cookies, collect holiday gifts and serve military members through partnerships that include the Children’s Cancer Center, St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital Foundation, A Kid’s Place of Tampa Bay, Moffitt Cancer Center and the Tampa Pig Jig. With the Children’s Cancer Center, Knead for Knowledge helps young people affected by childhood cancer or blood disorders continue their education and S.A.I.L. addresses academic and emotional gaps created by treatment.

Owner Kevin Ricci and the Covelli team support those programs through donated bread, cause-themed cookies, collection boxes, Giving Trees and other café campaigns.

Trade and technology teams also volunteer during business hours without using personal leave, building homes with Habitat for Humanity, packing meals with Feeding Tampa Bay, introducing students to careers through Junior Achievement and supporting PARC Center for Disabilities and Clothes to Kids. Other partners include Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, Suncoast Voices for Children, SPCA Tampa Bay and the Children’s Dream Fund.

At Pirates & Pitmasters, employee teams compete in a barbecue cook-off and Amazing Race on behalf of nonprofits, while the company opens its 25,000-square-foot event space to nonprofit groups at no charge. Director of Community Impact Juli Permuy coordinates the program, with employees choosing the causes that receive Project V5 support.

Beckinger has chaired seven consecutive High 5 Casino Nights and served on the boards of High 5 Inc. and the Helen Gordon Davis Centre for Women. He has also held regional leadership roles with Blood Cancer United, which named him its 2026 National All-Star Visionary of the Year.

At ABC Events, Beckinger’s nonprofit work can continue through the final load-out: he works the phones, helps build the event and stays until the room is cleared.

Her other nonprofit relationships include Pasco Kids First’s Children’s Advocacy Center, the Community Service Council of West Pasco, Love Generously, the Bobby White Foundation, Wheelchairs 4 Kids, Premiere Community Health and Youth and Family Advocates’ RAP House. Diaz researches organizations, meets their leaders and attends their events before and during her involvement.

She also allows employees to participate in community events during the workday.

By his mid-20s, Persaud was helping other students get through college with mentorship and educational support. He later built MidFlorida Armored and ATM Services and launched additional ventures, while his philanthropy expanded into children’s mobility through Wheelchairs 4 Kids, which helps provide wheelchairs, vehicle modifications and other equipment that can give children greater independence.

Persaud later chaired the American Heart Association’s Tampa Bay Metro Board, bringing business, medical and civic leaders into its health initiatives. His 1,000-acre Persaud Legacy Farms also includes plans for equine therapy, community gatherings and service projects.

His relationships now span CASA Pinellas, Gulf Coast JFCS, Habitat for Humanity Tampa Bay Gulfside, SPCA Tampa Bay, the Florida Holocaust Museum, the Woodson African American Museum of Florida and Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital. Wolfe also serves the St. Petersburg Downtown Partnership, St. Petersburg Economic Development Corp. and Habitat for Humanity Tampa Bay Gulfside.

Wolfe linked the Woodson with business leaders supporting its Jazzy Juneteenth Jubilee, and a dinner he hosted for Gulf Coast JFCS prompted other community leaders to organize gatherings of their own. His annual Halloween event brings supporters around local causes, while SmartChoice employees join service projects through #SmartChoiceCares.

Bayard developed a financing plan to restart the Manatee Performing Arts Center, and the couple contributed about 25% of the roughly $8 million needed to complete it in 2013. He also designed and helped fund a program-related investment loan through the Manatee Community Foundation and worked to raise the rest from the public; construction finished about seven months after restarting.

His hunger-relief work began during his dealership years, when Bayard used the end of television commercials to promote the Richmond food bank and persuaded the city’s four television stations to produce public-service announcements. After moving to Florida, he approached ABC7 about similar spots for Suncoast food banks, then he and Sara supplied the initial $50,000 for a Giving Tuesday television fundraiser benefiting Meals on Wheels PLUS of Manatee that Bayard says has raised more than $500,000 annually for roughly five years. Feed More’s Bayard Community Kitchen in Central Virginia provides about 15,000 meals a week for senior centers, after-school programs and Meals on Wheels.

At 89, Bayard has stepped away from board service but remains on the Florida Cultural Group’s finance committee, while he and Sara also support Help to Home and Take Stock in Children. The Bayards are now lead donors for the Manatee Performing Arts Center’s $12 million Sara’s Studios expansion.

Jacobs expanded Wheels of Success beyond employment transportation with Vehicles for Veterans, Cars for Caregivers, Build A Life and Wheels to the Future for young adults, including those aging out of foster care. Road to Independence works with The Spring of Tampa Bay, CASA and Sunrise of Pasco County so survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking can reach jobs and other resources, extending the original ride-to-work model into health care, education, childcare, caregiving and personal safety.

State Farm, Tampa General Hospital, BayCare, AdventHealth, Community Foundation Tampa Bay, United Way Suncoast, AAA and the Eckerd Family Foundation have supported that work, alongside social service agencies, employers and community leaders. Jacobs kept leading through two strokes, two recessions, back surgery and the pandemic; more than 23 years after those first two donated cars arrived, Wheels of Success has provided nearly 1,385 vehicles and more than 1,300 vehicle repairs and related services.

His work with children and education has included board service with Brooks DeBartolo Collegiate High School and the Sydney School for Autism, fundraising for Pepin Academies and events with Big Brothers Big Sisters. At Big Brothers Big Sisters holiday events, Henning has repeatedly appeared in a Santa suit as the “Man from the North Pole.”

Henning helped establish the Super-Secret Supper Club with Lisa DeBartolo and Don Miggs, hosting dinners that introduce donors to grassroots organizations. More than 200 organizations have benefited, and Henning has used private dinners to raise nearly $800,000 for the TB12 Foundation, more than $100,000 for the Vincent Jackson Family Foundation and additional support for MORE HEALTH. His Leukemia & Lymphoma Society campaign raised more than $50,000 and resulted in his being named Man of the Year.

Henning also supports Operation Healing Forces and the Ryan Nece, Derrick Brooks, Tampa Bay Lightning, DeBartolo Family and Pepin Family foundations.